By
Chimamanda U. Martha
April 26th, 2024
Unlike last year, this year’s World Economic Forum will see leaders from the crypto space speaking on the future of the global payments industry. Thus, we are likely to hear more about cryptocurrencies, stablecoins, and central bank digital currencies.
Starting today, January 21, the annual World Economic Forum 2020 is kicking off in Davos, Switzerland, with global leaders seen participating. Like always, this will also be a four-day event going up to January 24.
This year’s WEF 2020’s theme is “Stakeholders for a Cohesive and Sustainable World”. Like every year, global leaders will speak on issues of the global economy and wider participation of countries for overall sustainable growth. Besides, there will also be talks on avoiding trade conflicts and friction among the 193 member nations.
Also, additional and pressing issues like climate change, clean environment, healthy future, etc. shall be on the radar. UK’s recently appointed Prime Minister Boris Johnson may not come to the event. But U.S. President Donald Trump will join the forum with other dignitaries. Environmental activist Greta Thunberg who has recently been in the limelight will also be a guest at the event.
However, we are expecting that the most interesting thing will leaders and economists discussing crypto, CBDCs, and stablecoins during the WEF 2020 meeting at Davos.
Discussing Cryptocurrency at WEF 2020
Some of the key leaders from the crypto industry will also be a part of the event either as attendees or speakers. Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse is said to attend the event. However, it’s highly possible that he will just be an attendee and won’t the stage with other crypto speakers.
Also, Circle CEO Jeremy Allaire will be seen talking in a session named “Shaping the Future of Financial and Monetary Systems”. Moreover, in a word with CoinDesk, Allaire also said that he will touchdown and promote the concept of stablecoins.
There is another public speaking panel dedicated to “Creating a Credible and Trusted Digital Currency”. This panel will be discussing the importance of digital currencies in the modern financial systems. The panel will key areas of reducing risks while simultaneously streamlining global payments and settlements.
The dignitaries at the panel include Facebook‘s Blockchain head, David Marcus. Thus, it is most likely that we will hear a word or two about Facebook’s Libra cryptocurrency.
This is a no hidden fact that even central banks across the globe are working on several central-bank-digital-currency (CBDC) projects. China’s central bank PBoC has already accelerated work on its CBDC project and we might see a Digital Yuan ahead this year.
Last year in 2019, there was heavy criticism for cryptocurrencies in the WEF event. However, there have been interesting new developments in the crypto space with global organizations and governments participating in it.
In addition to cryptocurrencies, there will also be an informed decision on the use of blockchain technology and its applications across different business verticals.